Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Sprint backlog meets fundraising...

My son goes to a daycare in a church. The other day I was walking out with him and I saw the following (click for larger image):

We've all seen the "thermometer" fundrasier boards where the local non-profit raises the red bar in the thermometer in the scale to entice people to raise the amount needed. What this church realized is that people will feel more invested if they actually know what the money will be spent on.

Enter the prioritized backlog on the fundraiser board. It is very clear that the group in charge is saying that the first dollars will fix the problems, the next chunks of money will think about the future, and the extra money can be spent on some nice to haves (and the remainder will be saved). It's not about raising X dollars, it is about raising the money for the individual projects.

People will feel invested to get involved. Every week they can look at the board and say "Look, we should help pitch in for that." The customers are getting immediate feedback. An expectation and accountability is being set for seeing these projects happen, because it is what people paid for!

Imagine if you could determine where your tax dollars were spent. What impact would that have on paying taxes and government funded projects?

Prioritizing your backlog and exposing it to your team and customer can be a good thing. I hope you appreciated this example as much as I did!